Its news like THAT, which make it such a Thrill to be working to help out with this film! Even "IF" it can't work out in the end, MARK went for it! To make it ALL it CAN be not just Good enough, or Great, But EXTRAORDANARY! Thank you Mark. It is a privilege working with you.

And

New Site is up [link=http://www.xpressentertainment.ca/index.php]Here[/link].

And this isn't some temporary caffeine rush thing. This is a long term, seriously dedicated thing. I put in a lot of long hours on this baby and I will be sure that it reaches every expectation we have.

I don't care how much sponsorship chasing and grant applications, partnerships and co-production I need to do, if you guys keep this enthusiasm going I'll make sure we get what we need to put it together.

I recently saw the teaser trailer for this german fan film called tydirium. By far the best effects I've seen in a fan based production. Even the compositing was fairly decent except for one awkward droid situation. But other than that they were getting up there into the nearly Lucasfilm quality range.

We're going to have Lucasfilm quality effects yes indeed but we'll also have terrific performances, legendary cameos, a whole lot of heart and soul, and quite a few things they've never seen before or will again.

To the eyes and the ears of the entire worldwide fan base. That's my motto. Or at least it would be if I started having a motto.

Ok so maybe that's a little extreme. Let me rephrase. I just adjusted the script to be more condusive to the generally accepted Han Solo timeline.

I wanted to tell the story of Han winning the Falcon from Lando and have him set the Kessel run record as well as show him having to ditch his cargo when pulled over by the imps. For the longest time I've had my head in the ground over this matter because there isn't anything in the ANH dialogue rock solid enough to determine exactly how long Han has had the Falcon for.

Therefore I thought I could get away with him obtaining the Falcon within a week of ANH.

I did this based on using the films as cannon and left everything else to EU land which is hardly ever a credible source for story line info anyway. Then I did some more research on the subject and kept getting slapped in the face with the Han Solo Trilogy.

Three novels about Han Solo and the events we intend to explore through our movie. George Lucas asked for those books to be written and I am told he is for the most part, pleased with their timeline. That puts Han at age 24 when acquiring the Falcon, 28 for the Kessel run and 33 when he ditches the cargo, 3 days before ANH.

This spacing of time is so obviously done to fit the format of a three book trilogy it's not even funny. But there are things within those books I still don't agree with and I won't go into that here because I've gone into it before and it's on the site as a F.A.Q.

Our spacing of time will still differ from these books in the sense that we're going to have the Kessel run immediately followed up by the cargo ditch but the sabacc game won't take place in the timeframe of this film at all.

So how we still fit it in is the big question.

Now I've said before I resist doing flashbacks because they're generally not done in Star Wars. Most of the time it's one story from beginning to end with no serious departures from the here and now.

However after serious consideration and a need to make it an artfully crafted approach, I have decided to tell this part of the story through that medium.

From a visual effects standpoint we're not going to fall into any stupid or cheesy hollywood traps and use shimmers or morphs. I'm going to have Han come back to the Kessel Cantina where it all happened early in the film and as he's staring at the doors of the Cantina the use of precise compositing and color will craft a transition into memory lane that will feel natural to the audience and involve them in the scene so that it never feels like a harsh skewing of the story and it is the story telling that we're after here.

I have no doubt that this new version will smooth out any issues we previously had about timelines and open the door for some very interesting character dynamics especially in the supporting roles, Kabbal in particular. Unfortunately we have to remove the parts about the Falcon getting it's name or the movie is going to need more flashbacks and we're going to start looking like a bad episode of sitcom television.

I would like to add the element of Boba Fetts first meeting with Han Solo if that's possible so is anyone here familiar with that story and if so what is it?

Boba Fett meets Han Solo for the first time on Nar Shadda (the smugglers moon) in the second book of the Han Solo trilogy. Solo's wanted by another kajidic (a Hutt crime syndicate [not having anything to do with Jabba's clan, of course]) for his role in killing an old Hutt and stealing his collection of rare antiques. The whole story of how Boba Fett comes to track Solo is pretty cool as Han has left behind a pile of two-bit bounty-hunters behind him, when finally a Kajidic underling decides to up the bounty by selling off part of his collection. Boba tracks him to a spaceport on Nar Shadda and gets the drop on him... fortunately a friend of a friend sees the whole thing go down. The guy helps Han by getting the drop on Boba as he's taking Solo to his ship (Slave I). The friend-of-the-friend is none other than Lando Calrissian (also THERE first meeting).

I have the book if you want to borrow it. The chapter is called "The X Bount Hunter" (I can't remember what number X is but Boba Fett is the Xth bounty hunter to hunt for Solo.

For better or worse all the changes are finished. Personally I am very pleased with how things turned out. We came up with some excellent ways to solidify and improve the motivations for characters doing what they're doing while keeping the charm of the original story telling ideas and improving our credibility.

I truly feel the story is stronger and more impactful the way it's structured and we will be moving forward to the pre vis and story boarding stage with what we have now.

I am trying very hard to work out deals on getting camera equipment and even if I have to rent the equipment at a discount rate, I will still be chasing opportunities for ownership while this is happening for our benefit and for the benefit of future projects.

Alright after sitting down with Dave Puff and planning the shot sequence for the whole first scene of the film I have to say I'm fairly pumped.

He's actually quite good at writing the male female dynamic and he's offered up a few solutions for doing something I have always wanted to do which is to make the flow between Antilles and Aliska more natural and more human.

When we plan these shot sequences I'm going to want to storyboard them so we know what order events are happening in. However I'm lazy and don't feel like drawing out a cell for 20 minutes that will take 20 seconds to get as a live still photograph.

So I need volunteers.

Clark I know you're down for the picture taking if we can schedule it around you but I also need stand ins.

When it's just Antilles and Aliska I need an Aliska stand in for the pictures. When the scenes get more elaborate like cantina and hangar bay I'm going to need people to stand in for Han, Chewie, Dash, Vader and a myriad of others so we can get this done.

I already have to physcially draw out several story boards or get someone else to for the space battles and whatnot so I'd like to do the human interaction storyboarding the easy way.

Also Clark and anyone else who was following the Sonic snap happy contest with me, the winners of that contest have now contacted me and are interested in helping the project. We have an appointment Saturday. That should be interesting.

We now have a forum up at Xpress Entertainment for discussion related to this project and other topics as well. [link=http://www.xpressentertainment.ca/forum/]Check it out![/link] Let me know if you like it... if you don't like it now is a time for silent contemplation. lol